Archive for August, 2007

With LucisArt filter

…and without

Related posts:
Playing with the LucisArt Photoshop filter plug-in
A bit of LucisArt again

Taking photos is fun and it is even greater fun when you can use top quality professional equipment. However owning top quality gear hides a few traps for the inexperienced.

I have been a happy owner of an AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED lens for some time now. It is definitely a professional lens and it performs extremely well even in my unprofessional hands. But in spite of that I encountered issues with owning and using this great piece of glass.

I spent a bit more than a week with this pro thing – and of course with my family – during my holiday. I carried the lens in my Lowepro Slingshot 300 AW with other pieces of my gear and held it in my hands for quite a few hours. The lens’ 1470g weight has been proven many times on my shoulders and in my hands. It is heavy, man. My wife could make just a few shots with it because of its weight.
Trap #1: Professional photography equipment is heavy in most of the cases. These things are designed for providing quality results for commercial photography purposes and making them light weight is not a primary requirement.

After making a few shots with my new lens I fell in love with its bokeh – the smooth haziness of the out-of-focus areas – which can be especially useful in portraiture creating a nicely blurred background.

taken with an 18-135mm “kit lens“

taken with the expensive 70-200mm lens

My very first impression was that this effect can be achieved only with such a top lens, and it took me quite a few weeks to realize that even I managed to make a photo with comparable bokeh but with a much cheaper lens.
Trap #2: thinking that only expensive gear can give you the desired results.

When photographing people with this 70-200mm lens I realized in pain how far I have to walk away to shoot a standing figure. I should have known what I will get before buying the lens. I had been told by a friend that this lens is a professional and generic purpose lens used by the pros every day. I checked the reviews and evaluations of this specific glass written by professionals and they stated that this is a great thing to have. But they know what to expect from 70mm and I did not. It was also a kind of surprise to me that I cannot focus when going too close to my object, which means that this glass cannot be used as a micro lens.
Trap #3: buying something when you don’t know exactly what to expect.

A 70-200mm lens is definitely a telephoto lens. With all of of its advantages and disadvantages. Landscape photography is mostly done by wideangle lenses. Within buildings you might want to use normal or wideangle ones and for photographing very small objects you use micro lenses. But if you are – like I was – travelling, carrying your camera equipped with your beloved, expensive and heavy lens and you are – just like I was – reluctant to change your lens – because of loving your new purchase so much or being afraid of dust getting into your camera – to an other one that would fit and serve better in the given circumstances, then you have chosen the wrong lens for your trip.
Trap #4: using your top quality gear in situations where other ones – possibly not that good pieces – would be better.

I’m thinking of buying an other lens. A wide-angle zoom. And if I had bought a pro lens for telephoto why should I buy a cheap one for wide-angle? I need exceptional quality, right?
Hey, am I stupid? I am still not a professional photographer. Why on Earth would I need an other lens in the wide area when I have the 18-135mm kit lens? What are my problems with it?

1. It is a DX lens, which means that it was designed for “small” sensor of the Nikon DSLRs and it does not give a full frame picture. But I don’t have a full frame DSLR (even Nikon does not have.)
2. It has cromatic aberration. But that can be handled in Lightroom, right?
3. It is vignetting. But that can be handled in Lightroom as well, right?

But I need it, period.
Trap #5: you cannot stop if you are in the loop of top gear.

Good gear is not evil though, but one should be prepared to use it both mentally and practically. I heard it many years ago that before buying a house the buyer should rent it for a while to probe it. A colleague of mine refused to buy a used car without a test drive. I know it is not always feasible but in most cases you can rent or borrow the pro camera, lens, flashlight or whatever you are planning to purchase. Do it and decide after that. And eventually it will give you pleasure.

Portraiture is a very exciting – but also challenging – area of photography. Doing it well is not trivial and one cannot master it without practicing. I managed to organize my first portrait photography session a few days ago with real people not from my family. I made quite a lot of mistakes, but a few good pictures as well. Might be beneficial for beginners to read about my experiences. Here comes how the session went.

The story

Anita, the better half of an ex-colleague of mine attended a Professional Make-Up training course lead by a pro Hollywood master. She would like to build her portfolio and could use a few good pictures representing her work.

Myself, the beginner photographer, after reading a lot about photography, lighting and other related things, but practicing relatively little would like to practice portrait photography.

Read the rest of this entry »